Hogwarts, A History
by Potterhead101
Summary: The most reliable and highly popular account of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's magical history, as told through the eyes of Chroniculus Punnet, notable magical historian famous for his unsympathetic and analyzing opinions.
1. The Early Days

**Disclaimer: **I am not J.K. Rowling, nor am I Chroniculus Punnet (the ficticious author of Hogwarts, A History), so please do not sue me.

**~~ Chapter One: The Early Days ~~**

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry started out, over a millennium ago, as no more than the dream of the four greatest witches and wizards of the time; Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Helga Hufflepuff. Each represented an aspect of wizarding that they found more prominent, and wished to bring out in young sorcerers.

Deciding to put their fantasies into action, it was Ravenclaw, who had grown up as the daughter of a Scottish beggar in Edinburgh, who suggested they hide the school away, safely nestled in the hills of the wild countryside of Scotland. Agreeing upon such an isolated location, the four went to work at once, building the school in the form of a castle, using a type of magic so powerful that the very stone walls came to life with a personality of their own.

The original Hogwarts Castle bore little resemblance to its future counterpart, as far as size is concerned, although, even then, Appartation was not possible on the grounds, due to numerous charms, the incantations for some of which have been lost to the ages. Indeed, it is believed that some of the old spells cast by Rowena Ravenclaw continue to protect the castle and its surroundings.

Once Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded, Salazar Slytherin created a magical quill that recorded the name of every pureblood witch or wizard born in Great Britain. The quill was later modified by Godric Gryffindor to record all magical children in the United Kingdom, not only purebloods. This difference in opinion on the matter of purity of blood caused little strife among the founders, and they continued to all be good friends.

However, arguments over qualifications for admission into the yet to be started school continued, and ensued even after Hogwarts first opened its doors. The first student to join the learning body was an Irish witch named Hermione Sophismatio, who was sixteen, far older than the eleven-year-old students that entered shortly afterword. Due to her prodigious skill at magic (it is believed that she had been home-schooled by a powerful wizard family), she graduated eighteen months later, the first student to do so.

She continued to use the school as her home, claiming she had no home outside the castle to go to, and three years after her arrival, she became the first to suggest using a House system for the school, one in which each founder could take only the students who possessed the traits they valued. The four Houses were named after their creators; Gryffindor took those of daring, nerve, and chivalry; Slytherin accepted only pure-blood wizards of great cunning; Ravenclaw welcomed those of great wit and learning; and Hufflepuff allowed all the rest, including those of patience, loyalty, and hard work.

Terrified by the prospect of choosing the students once they had all died, it was Gryffindor who magically enchanted his own hat with each of he and his friends personalities, and deemed it the "Sorting Hat." It became a magical object with its own sentience, and possessed the rare ability to read the personality and traits of those who put it on.

As to the faculty, the four founders taught all the subjects by themselves; Gryffindor took Charms and Transfiguration, Slytherin taught History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ravenclaw taught Ancient Runes and Astronomy, and Hufflepuff taught Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology. Two years after the Sorting had been decided, Hogwarts received an influx of new students, which overwhelmed the four professors, and Hermione Sophismatio became the first official Hogwarts student to join the staff, taking over Charms for Godric.

Some time later, Salazar had a son, by an unknown mother (historical sources have debated this woman may have been Professors Sophismatio or Ravenclaw, or even a student, although there is no evidence for any of these claims). Callidas Slytherin became the first in a long line of heirs to the Slytherin legacy.

Months later, Slytherin left the school after long denied arguments over purity of blood. Leaving Callidas in the care of a pureblood family who lived in the newly founded nearby village of Hogsmeade, which had been started by Hengist of Woodcroft, a wizard fleeing persecution by Muggles, only a year before, Slytherin was never seen at the castle again.

Legend has it that he left behind a Chamber of Secrets; a secret area under the school, in which he put a Basilisk, using his own Parseltounge abilities, which would be set free to rid the school of Muggle-borns when his heir returned to the castle. Whether this legend is true or not, Salazar Slytherin was never seen again, and rumors even surfaced that he had commited suicide, or otherwise perished for all eternity.

And ever since that day, when the founder's four had been whittled down to three, the Hogwarts Houses have never been united, as they were meant to be.


	2. After Slytherin

**~~ Chapter Two: After Slytherin ~~**

Shortly after Slytherin abandon the castle, Professor Sophismatio also left the school, allegedly to travel the world and broaden her mind to Wizarding culture. It was then, with four teachers juggling fourteen subjects, that the Founders realized they would need to have a more advanced faculty. Teachers were summoned from all over the world; the most notable magical names of the day came from near and far to get a post at Hogwarts School.

After several weeks of interviews and compromises, eight more staff members were appointed, many of whom where related to the Founders in some way; Proffesors Isvthtere and Gavillece Gryffindor, Brotus Filch, Narcorsum Valsaecrum, Kalen Thunderist, Jarvice Mortism, Elanora Ravenclaw, and Jarvice Mortism (Professor Mortism became the first Head of Slytherin House since the great professor himself).

It was around this same time that two major events that would have lasting effects on the school took place; the first was that, to accommodate the new teachers, the entire school was remodeled. Indeed, with so much magic buzzing around the premises, the building literally took on a life of its own; to this day, the fact that the sentient walls and floors have the ability to change their location confuses even the most experienced students. The second major event, was Rowena Ravenclaw's pregnancy.

As with the mother of Slytherin's son Callidas, the other parent of Helena Ravenclaw, as she would be called, has been put up to debate. Some argue that the father was clearly Godric Gryffindor, with whom it has been rumored had an ongoing romantic relationship with the clever witch and who was rarely seen without her. Others, however, are not so sure, and Proffesor Isvethtere Gryffindor, Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at the time and cousin of Godric, strongly denied such claims.

The identity of the other parent has been continually overshadowed by a third, and, some would say, most significant event. Professor Ravenclaw had always been well known for her experience in spells and jinxes, but, by far, her most progressive creation in the field of experimental magic was her creation of a diadem. Like the pointed Wizard's hat that Gryffindor turned into the Sorting Hat, Ravenclaw was hardly ever seen without wearing her tiara, embossed with her signature phrase "_Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure_," and, even more like her fellow Founder, she took this diadem so far as to imbibe it with her own personality, and, for that reason, it was claimed that it would give the wearer unlimited knowledge.

Over a decade passed at Hogwarts School, and little changed beside the new recipes Helga Hufflepuff introduced to the castle's kitchens. Within a few years time, Helena Ravenclaw would begin her studies. A bright student, her friends, including her lover, a young Slytherin student, Nicollo Von Bruenstien, who became a baron in later life, described her as being "wise, witty, and clever," all that was valued in the traditional house of her family. And yet, Helena was continually overshadowed by her more prominent mother, which provoked her into running away shortly after her seventh year, which also marked the disappearance of Ravenclaw's legendary diadem. Whether there is any connection between the two events has yet to be seen.

What can be assumed, is that the health of sixty-two year old Rowena, was rapidly deteriorating due to what legend would have it was a broken heart, cause unknown. This tale has sparked some speculation among scholars, some deciding that she was psychologically scarred by the abandonment of her daughter, others saying the cause was none other than the death of her friend and elder, Godric Gryffindor. What can be ascertained is this; Rowena contacted her daughter's admirer, Baron Von Bruenstien, and made it very clear he was to find Helena and bring her back to the castle.

The Baron did his best, and finally found Helena hiding deep in the forests of Albania. When she refused to let herself be taken by him, he killed her in a fit of rage, before coming to terms with what he had done and killing himself most gruesomely. Forlorn, Helena's ghost, forever afterward deemed the Grey Lady, returned to Hogwarts willingly, but shortly after her mother's death. This left only Hufflepuff of the original four, but she retired to live out the rest of her quiet life in Hogsmeade, where she, rather late in life, had a child, shortly before her own death. The last of the Founders was gone.


	3. Gryffindor Glory

**Disclaimer: **I am not Jo, so please do not flame me if you don't get the same tingly feelings reading my work as you do with her. I stick to canon as much as possible when writing these stories, but there's not much to go on for some of these, and so you will be reading some fanon.

**~~Chapter Three: Gryffindor Glory~~**

With the four original Founders of Hogwarts School dead and gone, final exams for the year of 1004 were postponed as a sign of mourning for the creators of what was now officially recognized as the most prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry by the British Ministry of Magic. After a brief tribunal ceremony, it was Professor Filch who realized the need to unite the castle under one, superior leader, rather than have the troublesome squabbles caused by having multiple headmasters and mistresses in the past.

Filch more than hinted that he would like the job himself, but as he was both vain and an avid pure-blood supremacist, the other professors saw that he taking the post would result in more mayhem and chaos, just as the reign of Slytherin before him had done. After minimal debate, it was decided early on that a new teacher would take the post, one with a reputable background. The only problem was, where were they to find such a person?

The answer came almost at once in the form of the resignation of the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, Heliotrope Wilkins, a middle-aged witch who was known for her fairness and loyalty. Hogwarts immediately sent a letter to Wilkins by owl, and she graciously accepted.

With a new Headmistress that it could rely on, the school was back on its feet, recovered from the sudden deaths of many of its professors, and remained the stronghold of magic it had always been. Professor Wilkins proved to be as popular among the students as she had been among politicians, although, over time, she did develop a taste for the grand. It was said that one day in 1036, while sitting in her office, Wilkins suddenly decided that the "Houses of Hogwarts are virtually pointless for any means other than causing strong hatreds, and the students show little or no House pride." With that, she drew out a complicated plan to distribute House points for good behavior, success in the classroom, and whatnot. Also, poor behavior would lose House points. At the end of the year, Wilkins decided, the House with the most points would win the House cup.

With this new plan ready for action, the witch decided that next each House needed a ghost, a deceased individual who had returned to the realm of the living that would serve as a mascot of sorts. The spirits that had haunted the castle since not long after their deaths, known in their lifetimes as Helena Ravenclaw and Nicollo Von Breunen, and known in their death times as the Grey Lady and Bloody Baron, respectively, were chosen to represent Ravenclaw and Slytherin House. Although no dead Hufflepuffs had become ghosts, the late great Helga Hufflepuff's father, a priest named Armando, was allowed in, given the pseudonym the "Fat Friar." This left only Gryffindor without a representative, and so the head of said house, Professor Valsaecrum became the talisman.

It was not long before the Headmistress realized they had a problem; the majority of the points were going to either intelligent Ravenclaw students, who dominated the classroom, or kindhearted Hufflepuffs, whose good behavior was the very embodiment of superior citizenship. At the rate in which these two Houses were dominating the tournament, Wilkins realized that Gryffindor and Slytherin barely stood a chance for receiving any glory at the end of the year.

Trying to find a solution for this problem stumped the teachers and caretakers alike, and it was, surprisingly, a student who decided that they should bring Quidditch, a sport which was quickly gaining popularity among the wizards of western Europe. Ingenious as the idea was, it was not backed by the entire student body; many argued that, if Quidditch would be allowed, so should the more traditional Irish sport of Aingingein.

It was compromised that both sports would be allowed, and Hogwarts proceeded to hire two flying instructors; Quidditch player Edgar Cloggs and Aingingein champion Fingal the Fearless. Aingingein, however, was banned when Fingal caught fire, spending much of the remainder of his life in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and Quidditch was nearly banned when Professor Cloggs fell to his death, spending the rest of his life as a ghost who haunted the pitch.

Indeed, it has been argued, mainly by wizards who feel some contempt toward Gryffindor and Slytherin Houses, that the only reason the game stayed on was because, according to Maverick MacMillian "It was the only way those other two could have a chance for the Cup." Whether or not MacMillian is correct, it would seem that Quidditch games greatly helped the failing Houses in the competition; by the end of the year, Gryffindor had become the first winner of the House cup.


End file.
